Syndicate, headed by Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. At first, the 83-year-old Adams was skeptical. Adams had inherited the Syndicate from her father, Edward Stratemeyer, after his death in 1930. In the late 1930s, Warner Bros. approached Adams about buying the movie rights to the Drew series. An inexperienced Adams sold all rights to Warner Bros., who made a series of B-films that did not please her. The Hardy Boys had previously been adapted for The Mickey Mouse Club in the late 1950s, and a Saturday morning cartoon series in the late 1960s, both of which disappointed Adams again. Adams wanted Brotman and Sidaris to keep the wholesome, conservative values of the characters; when Brotman and Sideris agreed, she approved of the series, but with full script approval. Universal gave the assignment to Glen A. Larson, who had produced the police drama Get Christie Love!. The show was pitched to ABC in September 1976, and the pilots were filmed for 24 straight hours. ABC picked up the series in November, with a set launch date of January 1977. Casting Shaun Cassidy was the first one cast, in the role of Joe Hardy. Producer Arlene Sidaris stated that they were looking for a "young David Cassidy", who was Shaun's half-brother. Sidaris stated that casting Nancy Drew was harder, as "everyone had a fixed image in their heads" of what she was like. Actress Jamie Lee Curtis auditioned for the role of Nancy Drew. She later guest starred in a Nancy Drew episode, "The Mystery of the Fallen Angels". Whereas the characters were generally depicted as teenagers in the original books and most previous screen adaptations, such as the serialized Hardy Boys stories of the 1950s' Mickey Mouse Club series and the Bonita Granville Nancy Drew films of the late 1930s, the TV series "aged-up" Frank and Nancy, as Stevenson and Martin were both in their mid-20s; only Cassidy was still a teen at the time the series entered production. Janet Louise Johnson was also in her late teens when she replaced Martin as Nancy Drew. Theme song The theme music was composed by long-time Glen A. Larson collaborator Stu Phillips. For the first season, the opening credits featured a maze under the series title. Martin, Stevenson, and Cassidy were all credited in all episodes, despite the program alternating between the characters. At the end of the haunting theme music, the voice-over announcer (William